Urgent Care Center Exceeding Residents' Expectations

Medical and injury cases
ranging from respiratory infections to broken bones have been seen and treated
during the first month of operation of the MedFast Urgent Care Center at the
Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John, a service of Parrish Medical Center
(PMC). MedFast is North Brevard’s first comprehensive urgent care facility.

Response from the community has been excellent,
according to PMC officials. The urgent care center is exceeding patient
experience expectations and providing convenient access to healthcare services
close to home.

Sprains and strains have been the most common injuries among the hundreds
of urgent care needs seen by MedFast physicians.

Before MedFast’s opening many, or most, of those people
seeking treatment would have gone to an emergency room, said Dr. David Williams,
MedFast’s medical director and board-certified emergency medicine
physician.

However, an
urgent care center like MedFast gives them fast and less expensive health
treatment than provided at emergency rooms, which are equipped, staffed and
intended for serious and life-threatening cases.

“We’re accomplishing two things — taking care of people
quickly and freeing up the emergency room for the cases it is designed to see,”
Dr. Williams said. “We’re open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., so
we’re also open and helping people when their primary care doctors’ offices are
closed. We communicate with doctors about all treatment we provide to their
patients.”

“Cooperation between the community, primary physicians,
emergency departments and urgent care providers creates a network of options
that gets people in the right hands at the right time for the right level of
care,” said Dr. Garcia.

According to the Urgent Care Association of America
(UCAOA), urgent care center scope of services are not at the same level as
emergency departments, but are more extensive and comprehensive than retail care
centers (often found in department stores such as Walmart, CVS, and other retail
centers).

Urgent Care Scheduling

“The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered, and in order that the sick may have the benefit of advancing knowledge, [a] union of forces is necessary.” — Dr. William J. Mayo, founder of Mayo Clinic
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